On Tuesday night, for the eleventh year in a row, I drafted a team in the Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football League which I play (for fun only) with my former boss and eight others.  Our ten-team fantasy league is quite competitive and has featured different winners in each of the past four years.

For the first time in my many years with this league, the Yahoo! Sports post-draft grading system gave me the highest draft marks in the league.  My team (named “Swamp Gas”) received an A- score and rated as the top statistical choice to win the league this season.

Woo-Hoo! 

Normally, my fantasy draft skills are not exactly proficient and I receive a score of C+ or B- at best.  An A-?  What’s wrong, I’m thinking.

I didn’t feel very lucky right before the start of Tuesday night’s draft, though.

About two minutes before the draft was to begin, Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football site played a brief one-minute video directed at my team.  One of their fantasy sports guys gave a brief speech which went something like this, “You’re in the #2 overall draft position.  Though you may believe this may be a good thing, teams who drafted in the #2 position finished last more than any other draft position last season.  But, who knows, maybe you’ll be luckier than most this year!”

Gee, thanks!  That wasn’t exactly very inspiring.

In the Yahoo! Sports fantasy football draft, the order of selection in the first round is randomly selected by their computer.

My team was given the #2 overall position, but then I had to wait for the remaining eight teams to select their first round choices.  In Round Two, the draft order is reversed (for the sake of fairness) so the #10 team picks once again and it goes 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and finally I was able to pick my second player.  Yes, I had to wait for the next 16 players to be selected prior to making my second overall pick.

Needless to say, the teams which select in the #1 or #2 spots or #9 and #10 have a lot of waiting to do at certain times in the annual fantasy football league player drafts.

But how do you determine which players to draft?

Many fantasy football teams allow the Yahoo! Sports computer to automatically select the best available player (as ranked by Yahoo! Sports, of course) and let their computer select their entire team.  Though the computer usually does a fair enough job, you also have no control and can’t guarantee that you can pick a few players from your favorite NFL teams.

I’m too much of a control freak to turn over my draft to “Uniblab” (George Jetson’s computer foil) and allow him all the fun.  That will never happen with my fantasy football team!

This year, I went online to NFL.com to do all of my pre-draft scouting work.

In the past, I’ve gone to a neighborhood drugstore and plunked down anywhere from $5 to $10 to buy a national sports magazine which promises to give me all the answers I need to win my league.  I would annually spend a few hours trying to figure out a player draft strategy to try.  Since I have only won our Fantasy Football League one time in ten seasons, I decided to save my money this year and try another (free) tactic.

The NFL’s own website contains a surprising amount of information available geared toward fantasy football players such as last year’s statistics on each player’s yardage gained, touchdowns, and the like.  It even “projects” how well each player might fare this year.  So, I put together a spreadsheet with the top 25 or 50 players from each group (quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends) to use as a draft night guide.

Even though place kickers and team defenses are also given ratings, I usually wait until the final two picks of the draft to grab one of them. Though some of the most “hyped” names are gone by that time in the draft, there are 32 NFL teams but only ten teams in my league.

Almost sixty years ago in 1962 at the US Open being played at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, local golf hero Arnold Palmer was paired in an 18-hole Monday playoff with a 22-year old slightly portly young golf phenom from Columbus, Ohio named Jack Nicklaus.  The enthusiastic western Pennsylvania fans were solidly backing Arnie (who was born, raised and still living in nearby Latrobe, PA).

It’s one thing for a golf crowd to be rooting for the hometown hero in Arnold Palmer.  It was quite another thing to hear the patrons yelling “Fat Jack” or “Ohio Fats” as they did that day toward the younger Nicklaus.

For his part, Jack Nicklaus claimed that he was totally focused on winning the US Open and really didn’t hear the crowd’s rude behavior.  Arnold Palmer was downright embarrassed that his overly enthusiastic and loyal fans had become very unsportsmanlike.  When the day ended, it was Jack Nicklaus who was hoisting the US Open championship trophy.  Despite this ugly incident in 1962, these two golf legends would become fast friends for the remainder of their careers.

Fast forward to 2021.

There are two young golfers on the PGA Tour whose recent success on the golf course and personal swagger are making some golf fans either love them or loathe them.

31-year old Brooks Koepka and 27-year old Byson DeChambeau have each won several times on the PGA Tour. Both have won major championships and both players are going to be playing for the United States in this month’s Ryder Cup team event in Wisconsin.

In golf’s legendary movie “Happy Gilmore”, the former hockey player-turned-golfer couldn’t seem to get the better of an arrogant professional golfer named Shooter McGavin.  McGavin even enlisted the help of a overzealous golf fan to go around the golf course and heckle the easily distracted Happy Gilmore at the most inappropriate times.

There have been several incidents cropping up lately associated with a real-life feud between current PGA stars Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.  These two players could be heading toward an ugly incident soon if someone doesn’t sit them down and negotiate a truce.

Most PGA Tour golfers are built like the high school nerds that most of us were in those days, too.  As someone who graduated from high school at nearly 6’ tall and a gangly 148 pounds, I would have fit in well on today’s PGA Tour.

Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau look like two guys who may have played linebacker and tight end on your high school football team.  They try to overpower golf courses off the tee to the delight of many golf fans.

Beefy Brooks Koepka has the persona of a brooding loner who enjoys playing mind games with the other pro golfers.  He relishes playing the toughest layouts on tour where the majority of his fellow PGA Tour competitors often struggle.  With four majors to his credit prior to age 30, Koepka plays majors extremely well but struggles to win in the PGA Tour’s regular season events.  He has only four non-major wins on tour at this point of his career.

The arrogant Brooks Koepka thinks most of his fellow pro golfers are mental weaklings.

“I think sometimes the majors are the easiest ones to win,” Koepka said. “Half the people shoot themselves out of it, and mentally I know I can beat most of them.”

Brooks Koepka wasn’t a household name heading into college at Florida State.  As his golf game continued to improve at FSU, Koepka earned All-American honors and slowly worked his way onto the PGA Tour.

He surprised most golf fans by grabbing two wins at both the US Open and the PGA Championships over the past five seasons.  The 31-year old Brooks Koepka seems to appear bored by the adulation of golf fans and relishes being able to walk away from the game for lengthy periods to enjoy the trappings of ...

It’s back!  Yes, your Fantasy Football League will be starting again soon.  Over the next week or so, it’s likely that your Fantasy Football League draft will be held to select your team for the 2021 NFL Season.

For those who are not familiar with Fantasy Football, groups of people get together to form a league of (usually) six to 12 teams filled with various players from all 32 NFL teams.  Each Fantasy Football franchise owner has a goal of assembling an All-Star team of (hopefully) the most prolific scorers in this year’s NFL season.

At your upcoming 2021 Fantasy Football Draft, you will select twice as many players as you will need to “start” on any given week.  For example, you should draft two quarterbacks in your upcoming Fantasy Football draft.  Then, every week, you will need to select one quarterback to “start” and hope that his on-field performance will be better than your other quarterback fared during the same week.

You will do likewise for running backs (select at least four in your Fantasy Football draft and play two of them each week of the regular season), wide receivers (select six/play three each week), along with tight ends, place kickers, and defensive teams (select two of each in your draft and play one at each position each week).   Most leagues have an extra “wild card” position (where you may utilize a remaining running back, wide receiver, or tight end) where you can play an extra player based on your best available bench player.

Each player’s on-field performance every week is translated into Fantasy Football points.  All players receive six points for a touchdown, but yardage gained for each position also translates into points, too.  For kickers, most leagues award one point for an extra point and field goals are assigned points based on the distance of the kick.  Defenses can also score points for touchdowns and are awarded points for sacking the quarterback, interceptions, and fumble recoveries.

Once your team is selected on your Fantasy Football draft night, you will have to trot out a line-up card every week based on your decisions as to which players will score the most points in particular week.  As in real life, the most successful Fantasy Football team owners are generally the ones who invest more of their personal time in keeping up with their team (watching for key injuries, “bye” weeks for each team, and the like).

It’s a lot like gardening, your golf game, and raising your children.  The more time and effort you put into it, the better the likely outcome!

In effect, you have become both the general manager and the coach of your Fantasy Football team.  You must make decisions on the best players to “hire” for your Fantasy Football team (essentially the same function of an NFL GM) but then you have to make weekly decisions on which players have the best chances to score the most points for your team every week (such as an NFL coach would have to do each week based on injuries or match-ups).

This year marks the start of my second decade of playing in a Fantasy Football League comprised of some former co-workers and a few college buddies of my former boss.  The league is purely for fun (no money involved) which makes for a much less stressful season for everyone.   Let me explain.

I am famously cheap (in case you hadn’t figured that out yet), and I absolutely hated my one and only season playing in a Fantasy Football league back in 1981 where money was on the line.  For a moderate up-front investment of $100 to be awarded a “franchise”, my lovely wife had to endure my sudden outbursts on Sunday afternoons as the television showed NFL highlights of another team’s player scoring a lengthy touchdown.  I would lament how many dollars that play had cost me.  Each week was a stomach-turner for me.  I was miserable for months, lost about $75 for the season, and will never EVER play Fantasy Football for money again.

It really saddens me to write another story about how the sports talk radio business is still losing air out of its tires.

Earlier this week, ESPN Radio (which was the first powerhouse national sports talk network) announced yet another round of line-up changes coming soon.  If things are going well, you don’t feel the need to make radical changes.  You shouldn’t pull the plug on your starting line-up unless they aren’t getting the job done for you.

This week, ESPN Radio (which still claims to have hundreds of affiliates nationwide) is ending their afternoon drive-time program pairing of Mike Golic, Jr. and female basketball player Chiney Ogwumike.  Though the parent ESPN claimed that Chiney’s future is brighter on the television side of their network, they could have found a way for her to do both jobs if her work as an afternoon sports talk radio host was going well.

Meanwhile, ESPN Radio’s morning drive show also announced a tire change this week.  The “new” morning show featuring former NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson and former basketball star Jay Williams is being revamped to include the very opinionated television host, Max Kellerman.  Reason?  Kellerman is a lightning rod who enjoys being verbally combative on the air as much as Donald Trump liked to dole out daily tweets to keep the Democrats annoyed.

Again, you don’t make changes in two of the biggest radio dayparts (morning drive and afternoon drive) if the ship is sailing along smoothly.  No, the ship called ESPN Radio has been taking on water quickly.

When thinking about today’s version of ESPN Radio, I picture the character “The Black Knight” from the classic movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.  You might remember the hilarious scene in which he lost more than one limb at the hands of the pacifist King Arthur all while contending that each lost appendage was “merely a flesh wound”.

ESPN Radio needs to buy a LARGE box of Band-Aids right now.

A few years ago, the ESPN Radio’s first arm was whacked when the 20-year morning team of Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic (aka “Mike & Mike”) split-up.  That special combination of having the always-inquisitive idea guy Greenberg sparring with the “Are you serious?” laid-back style of former NFL tackle Golic was both informative and entertaining on most mornings.

Though neither party has ever truly confessed what happened to cause the break-up four years ago, Greeny went into ESPN’s television studio and has battled bad ratings ever since debuting with his poorly named morning show called “Get Up!”.  Meanwhile, Mike Golic was paired with a new (but less abrasive) former ESPN TV host named Trey Wingo.  Most mornings, the show sounded like Golic was a big cat playing with his toy mouse as Wingo rarely ventured into very many heated discussions with the former NFL defensive tackle.

Translated, the show quickly became boring most days.

When you add in several months of sports-killing COVID in 2020 along with a dose of ESPN’s obviously leftward spin on social, political, and even sports issues, Golic & Wingo’s three year morning radio experiment ended last summer after the parent network failed to renew the contract of either of the two long-time ESPN fixtures.

Ow!  It looks like the Black Knight just lost another limb!

As part of this 2020 shake-up, ESPN Radio debuted a new morning show featuring former NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson and former Duke basketball player Jay (aka Jayson) Williams for the all-important morning drive spot.

The opinionated Keyshawn Johnson comes across a lot like the radio version of Jabba-the-Hutt as he stuffs himself with tasty frogs while letting out an occasional belch of his opinions.  Jay Williams comes across as the more knowledgeable host on...

You may have heard that golf legend Jack Nicklaus began to wear a yellow golf shirt on the final round of every PGA Tour event beginning in 1969 as a tribute to a young boy named Craig Smith who developed bone cancer at the age of eleven.

Nicklaus and his wife, Barbara, were friends with the boy’s family and were heartbroken to hear the news about this young man.

When Jack came over to visit and ask how he was feeling, he asked Craig what his favorite color was.  The youngster said, “Yellow”.  Nicklaus then leaned over and told him, “Every Sunday, when I’m playing and you can watch it on television, I will wear a yellow shirt, and that’s my ‘Hello, Craig!’ “

From that day on, Jack Nicklaus wore a yellow shirt in the final round every Sunday for the remainder of his career – including his final major championship at The Masters at the age of 46.

In subsequent years, we would watch Tiger Woods don his trademark red shirt for the final round of every golf tournament he has played in.

On Monday at the final round of the FedEx Playoff Northern Trust event in the New York City area, PGA professional golfer Tony Finau wore his usual final round color, too.

Tony’s green golf shirt is his final round choice.  He wears a green shirt in every Sunday final round, because it reminds him of his mother, who died in an automobile accident at the young age of 47 in November, 2011.  He struggled to play golf for months after her death.

Tony Finau said that his mother’s favorite color was green.  So, he now wears a green golf shirt in remembrance of his Mom in the final round of every PGA golf tournament.

“I know she’s there, I know she’s following me,” he said in an interview several years ago.

Tony Finau is part of a family which has roots in the Polynesian country of Tonga.  Yes, ladies, that is the same Tonga which is now famous for the famously buff “Tonga Man” who has carried the country’s national flag into the stadium as part of the Opening Ceremonies of the past few Summer Olympic Games.

The Finau family settled in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Tony’s clan was definitely not part of the typical country club set where most PGA golfers seem to get their start.

After young Tony Finau watched a relatively young Tiger Woods win the 1997 Masters golf tournament on television, Tony begged his father to let him learn to play golf, too.

His Dad, Kelepi Finau, took 7-year old Tony and his 6-year old brother, Gipper, to a local thrift store and purchased the boys their first set of golf clubs – for seventy-five cents apiece.  Pop then went to a local library and checked out a golf book he wanted the boys to read.  It was called, “Golf, My Way” by a pretty good golfer by the name of Jack Nicklaus.

From there, Tony and younger brother, Gipper, went to the local municipal golf course to learn how to chip and putt (for free, of course) on the putting green.  When Dad saw how much the kids loved to play golf, he would back the car out of the garage and put up a mattress to allow the boys to swing away and hit full practice shots off strips of carpet which Dad had strategically placed on the concrete floor of the garage.

The boys became so serious about the game that the local par-3 golf course (located just a few blocks from the Finau house) would allow the two young boys to play for free.  Both of the two Finau kids would become exceptional golfers by the time they reached high school.

In fact, their high school didn’t even have a golf team when Tony and brother Gipper came to the school.  That quickly changed.  The high school golf team,

This year, the National Football League will expand the regular season from 16 games to 17.  In return, the players and fans will be treated to one less preseason football game (just three instead of four) prior the start of the regular season.

As a young lad (decades ago in the 1970’s), a couple of friends and I drove to Dallas to take in an August preseason game between the Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers.   Those two teams were the faces of the NFL in the 1970’s and had become bitter rivals.  The game was played what was (at the time) a relatively new Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas.  The stadium was demolished ten years ago in favor of the new AT&T Stadium in nearby Arlington.

For those who don’t remember Texas Stadium, it featured a big hole in the roof to keep the rain off paying customers.  Dallas Cowboys fans would brag (as they quite are prone to do) that the hole in the roof of Texas Stadium allowed God to watch his favorite team play football.  Ugh.

This was also the time period when Dallas Cowboys fans started calling the franchise, “America’s Team”.  The impeccably dressed Dallas head coach, Tom Landry, would wear his trademark fedora hat along the sidelines and consult with quarterback (and former Navy hero) Roger Staubach about in-game strategy.

As a Steelers fan, I wanted to see Pittsburgh shut down these arrogant Dallas Cowboys and quiet their uppity fans during this mid-August preseason encounter.

Visitors to Dallas-Fort Worth in the month of August should expect sizzling 100 degree temperatures, and that’s exactly what we encountered that day and late into the evening inside of Texas Stadium.

We drove three hours west on I-20 from Shreveport and parked my car at 5PM at a lot nearly a mile away from the stadium.  One of my friends and I wore our black and gold Steelers t-shirts while “Mr. Cowboys” was proudly wearing a home team blue and white shirt of his own.  We trudged over a few hills and then navigated a heavily traveled bridge crossing over a freeway before finally reaching Texas Stadium’s huge (and very hot) parking lot.  That’s where the season ticket holders were allowed to park.

By the time we were able to find our seats (end zone – upper deck) for my first in-person NFL game, the three of us were pretty whipped by the excessive heat as we finally sat down.  During the hour prior to kickoff, we were able to watch (with the help of binoculars) our heroes warming up on the field before the game.  There was Shreveport’s own Terry Bradshaw!  I spotted Franco Harris, Jack Lambert, “Mean” Joe Greene and the entire Pittsburgh Steel Curtain defense.  “Mr. Cowboys” eagerly pointed out a few of his favorites such as Drew Pearson, Tony Dorsett, and 6’9” Ed “Too Tall” Jones, too.

In retrospect, it was a rather glorious evening to be able to say you saw so many future NFL Hall-of-Famers on the field at one time.

After downing a few overpriced stadium soft drinks, we sat in the shade of the Texas Stadium upper deck but continued to swelter along with 65,000 other paying customers.  Texas Stadium did not have air-conditioning and, sadly, the rooftop cover also kept the heat inside of that facility for the entirety of the game.

As the first quarter opened, we were treated to watch the starters for both of these Super Bowl quality teams on the field.  The crowd, like the players, was drenched in sweat, but the cheers for our favorite teams were quite impressive.

Then the second quarter started.

Sadly, there was no more Terry Bradshaw or Franco Harris or Lynn Swann playing on the field for Pittsburgh.  For “Mr. Cowboys”, Roger-the-Dodger was also done for the night as was running back Tony Dorsett and other starters.

Though all three of us knew most of the back-up players for the Steelers and Cowboys, the lingering August heat helped bring on a feeling of “Why did we bother coming all the way over here for this?

In our last visit, we discussed the current state of three major athletics conferences (ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12).  Last week, those three conferences met to discuss (perhaps) how to divvy-up the remainder of the Big 12 Conference teams or whether they had other things in mind.

What do you think they were discussing?  I think it comes down to two possibilities.

The first, and most likely, was to come up with a “friendly” agreement as to the best way for these three major athletics conferences to split-up all (or some) of the remaining Big 12 Conference teams.

After Texas and Oklahoma hit the road for the SEC a few weeks ago, that left eight Big 12 schools in that conference.  The Big 12 Conference might not be ready to go down without a fight, though.  They could try to add a few new members such as the University of Houston, SMU, Cincinnati, Memphis or Boise State in an effort to rebuild their conference once again.

If you’re one of the surviving eight Big 12 schools, you would be wise to hold-off on any ideas of a possible Big 12 “expansion” plan until your remaining members see if they are being courted by one of the four remaining major conferences first.  The annual television payday they might receive from joining one of the remaining major conferences will be significantly higher than a newly patched-up Big 12 Conference will be able to snag.

Remember, we are fully into a “Bigger is Better” feeding frenzy in major college athletics right now.  I don’t particularly like all of these changes for money’s sake, but let’s play the cards we are being dealt right now.

Let’s assume that last week’s work session (which I dubbed “The conference room of Conferences“) was a friendly gathering to gauge interest in each of the remaining Big 12 members.  Let’s also assume that each of the three athletics conferences in attendance will expand to 16 teams soon (just like the SEC).

As we discuss these eight Big 12 schools, keep in mind that the number of television eyeballs brought-in by these schools will, indeed, matter!  You can have a huge alumni base (like Texas Tech) but, if you’re unable to prove where your alumni reside in large numbers, you might be out of luck soon.  Let’s now discuss each of the eight Big 12 schools.

West Virginia – The Mountaineers could land in the ACC (where there are currently 15 member institutions) or the Big Ten (where there are 14 current members).  I think the ACC makes the most sense for the West Virginia as it sets-up rivalries with Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Pitt.

Oklahoma State – I discussed the Cowboys’ plight in depth earlier this month (https://swampswami.com/2021/08/03/is-oklahoma-state-poked-into-a-corner/).  The Pokes are most likely coveted by the Big Ten so that the conference can expand their footprint into the Oklahoma City (#43) and Tulsa (#58) television markets.  I cannot see the Pokes heading west into the Pac-12 unless they were to join along with TCU, Texas Tech and others.

Kansas – this one is a head scratcher.   Though KU’s basketball program is, arguably, a top five national program, the football team has been historically bad in recent decades.  I can see the Big Ten (holding their noses) taking KU purely to claim the #32 television market in Kansas City.

Kansas State – Unless the Pac-12 throws a lifeline to the Wildcats, they might be toast.

Iowa State – Sorry Cyclone fans, but I think you’re in the same boat as K-State soon.

Texas Tech – Texas Tech has well over 30,000 students on campus and a rabid alumni following for the school’s athletics programs.  Alas, the Lubbock TV market ranks a paltry #142 so the Red Raiders have to “sell” themselves as a national brand.  That’s going to be hard to do unless they can package themselves with…

TCU – The Horned Frogs are based in Fort Worth (TV marke...

Recent media reports indicated that representatives from the Big Ten, Pac 12, and the Atlantic Coast Conference met to discuss the possibility of forming some sort of an alliance.

There was a conference room full of Conferences, you might say.

After the recent expansion of the Southeastern Conference to 16 teams with the future addition of the University of Texas and Oklahoma University, shockwaves (especially for the remaining Big 12 Conference schools) have rippled across the college athletics landscape.

Geographically, the new SEC will put some additional travel pressures on athletes playing for the member schools.  Since the state of Oklahoma is just west of Arkansas, though, the addition of OU into the SEC is geographically feasible.  Likewise, the Texas Longhorns (in Austin) play just about two hours west of their former (and soon-to-be-rekindled) rivals from Aggieland in College Station.  Both OU and Texas are nice regional fits to play all major sports within the expanded SEC.

Before doing a lot of wild speculation (which I engage in regularly), let’s first take a closer look at the three leagues who just visited to the conference table, and then we’ll try to figure out what these power brokers may be considering:

The Atlantic Coast Conference (currently with 15 member schools):

Outside of the new bigger and bolder SEC, the Atlantic Coast Conference has been relatively quiet of late.  The ACC’s last few additions to their club have not exactly been smash hits.  In 2013, the league admitted the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University into the ACC fraternity.  In 2014, the University of Louisville was added to the conference.

Like every other major sports conference, it appears that the ACC was primarily attempting to add bigger television markets into the conference as the main rationale to bring those three schools into the fold.

Though Notre Dame also became affiliated with the ACC in 2013, the school’s football program has opted to remain independent.  The Fighting Irish already had a national television contract with NBC through 2025 which pays $15 million annually.  According to a recent study, Notre Dame football (ticket sales, merchandising, media revenues, and the like) generates over $70 million (after expenses) in annual profits for the school, so don’t feel sorry for the Fighting Irish.

The ACC’s other schools have a very lucrative television contract with ABC/ESPN.  Reports indicated that the conference pays their football-playing members about $29 million each in television revenue annually.  When ND’s current television contract with NBC expires in a few years, the bidding war for the Fighting Irish will be quite intense.  Will they stay independent or finally join the ACC in football?  Stay tuned.

Until Clemson’s recent domination in college football over the past decade (with two wins and two losses in the national championship game in the past six years), the ACC has long been considered to be America’s premier men’s basketball league.  Duke and North Carolina have a rich history and many national championships.  Virginia, Wake Forest, North Carolina State and recent conference additions Louisville and Syracuse added even more firepower in ACC basketball.

The Big Ten Conference (currently with 14 member schools):

The Big Ten (whose name doesn’t match the current math) added Penn State as team #11 (1990), Nebraska as #12 in 2011 and then Rutgers (New Jersey) and Maryland (a former ACC member) were invited in 2014 to become the current group of 14 affiliated universities.

Like the ACC, these four recent additions were made to broaden the television market reach for th...

Today, let’s take a deeper dive into the math and business implications in the wacky world of sports contract buyouts.

Hold on.  Yes, I saw you yawning!  This will get better (I hope).

Let’s examine the story of NBA guard Kemba Walker (a very nice guy from all I’ve heard) and learn about how contract buyouts work, shall we?

After this 2021 NBA season ended, Boston Celtics guard Kemba Walker was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for, in effect, Boston’s first round draft pick in the recently-held 2021 NBA draft.  On draft night, Oklahoma City sent that same draft pick (Boston held the #16 overall selection) to the Houston Rockets in exchange for two future picks courtesy of H-Town.

So, that meant that OKC had a 31-year old former NBA All-Star guard in Kemba Walker on the roster along with a couple of future NBA players (courtesy of the Houston Rockets) far down the road.  On the surface, I’m thinking “That’s pretty good deal for OKC!”

Now, as a 10-year NBA veteran, Kemba Walker’s most recent contract called for him (regardless of who he plays for) to be paid a reported $74 million over the next two seasons or $37 million per year.  That’s a lot of money when the average NBA team paid its players a total of $120 million per year in 2020.  In fact, that works out to about $8 million/year /player for a typical NBA roster of 15 players.

Yes, Kemba Walker’s contract is relatively pricey even by current NBA standards.

On the other hand, the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball team (which was founded as the Seattle SuperSonics back in 1967 before moving south to the Sooner state in 2008) missed the NBA playoffs this past season – by a lot!  The team went 22-50 in 2020, so a rebuild of this team was definitely in the cards.

That’s why it was surprising to hear that OKC had acquired Kemba Walker but, in reality, the team really didn’t want to keep him in the long-term.  The brain trust in OKC felt that there were other NBA teams who might covet the four-time NBA All-Star during this off-season.  They were ready to flip Kemba Walker to any other team with the best deal.

Apparently, that never materialized.

Being that Kemba Walker is (a) 31 years of age, (b) coming off a season where he was injured more than once in Boston and (c) has a contract which calls for him to be paid $37 million per season (which comprises 31% of the average NBA team payroll for 15 players), the market spoke loudly this summer by not speaking at all.  Crickets, baybee.

Yes, it looks like someone really goofed in the management circle for OKC.

One obvious solution would have been for the NBA Thunder to simply play the veteran Kemba Walker for the next two years.  The loyal fans in Oklahoma City might have liked to see how Walker could have helped to improve the home team.

Sorry fans, you simply don’t understand!

The management of the Oklahoma City Thunder made the deal to acquire Kemba Walker with the express intent of flipping him to another NBA team  –  even hoping they might garner some type of additional consideration (future draft pick, bench player, etc.).   Based on the lack of suitors for Kemba Walker over the past month, it’s safe to say that OKC simply blew it.

In order to save face, the management of the Oklahoma City Thunder then discussed matters with Kemba Walker himself.  Walker, who grew up in the Bronx, told the team that he longed to play for his hometown New York Knicks.

The Knicks, for their part of this possible transaction, told both parties, “Yes, we’d LOVE to have you on the roster, Kemba.  But, sadly, we only have $10 million of salary room available right now.  How about $8 million per year?”

Since $37 million (the amount due Walker under his current contract) is $29 million more than the $8 million being offered by the New York ...

With the NFL season just around the corner, it’s time for your favorite football team to get serious in training camp in preparation of playing the regular season beginning in September.

As a “Day 1” fan of the New Orleans Saints (circa 1967), we know how to party when times are good (like over the past 15-20 years) and, yes, we also know how to laugh it off when times aren’t very good (such as most of the first 30+ years of this football franchise).

With long-time quarterback Drew Brees finally retired and headed to the broadcast booth for NBC Sports this fall, your faithful Saints fan is getting mentally ready for an adjustment in his expectations in 2021.

No, I’m not planning to start designing a retro-look Saints paper bag to wear over my head like those fashionable head coverings of the 1970’s.  Not yet.  It’s just that I have this feeling in my gut that this season for the Saints is going to feel a lot more 1970’s than 2009 (the Saints’ one and only but wonderful Super Bowl season).

Why should I be so negative when the NFC’s Black and Gold team went a sterling 12-4 last season?  Even without Drew Brees, this team should still be pretty good, right?

Perhaps, but I’m not sold on it.  The karma coming out of the Saints camp this year just isn’t very good.

For one thing, wide receiver Michael Thomas, the Saints $100 million man, is not going to be ready to go at the beginning of the regular season (October, perhaps?) as he failed to get surgery on his injured ankle until this June.   That’s more than four months after New Orleans lost a January home playoff game to eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay.

Why did he wait so long to get surgery if he is the centerpiece of the Saints offense?

Nobody seems to know except Michael Thomas himself (who signed a 5-year, $100 million contract extension before the start of the 2020 season).  In true 2021 style, we must forego investigative reporting by any remaining traditional news sources.  Instead, let’s attempt to decipher today’s cryptic social media (Twitter) post from the Saints wealthy wide receiver himself.

“They tried to damage your reputation,” posted Michael Thomas earlier today.  “You saved theirs by not telling your side of the story.”

That’s spooky, alright.

Let’s see if I understand you, Michael.  You’re unhappy that you played on a bum ankle for much of last season and posted a career low of just 40 catches (vs. well over 100 receptions for the last four years).   You are also probably less-than-thrilled that your new starting quarterback for 2021 will be either the famously inaccurate Jameis Winston or almost as famously inaccurate Taysom Hill (when either one is compared to the dart-throwing machine called  Drew Brees).

After the Saints’ playoff loss to the Bucs, Michael Thomas sought a second opinion as to whether surgery was required for his ankle injury and then tried to rehab it on his own for a few months.  It simply didn’t work, so he finally agreed to have the surgery performed in June.  Alas, his decision and delay will now cost his team as the #1 wide receiver in the NFC will simply stand along the sidelines for up to the first half of the season while recovering.

The Saints management wasn’t happy Michael Thomas’ decision, either.  They allege that Michael Thomas was dodging their calls for months after the 2020 season ended.

“The sky is falling” chirped the Twitterheads!  The rumor mill is pushing a theory that the Saints are shopping Michael Thomas for a possible trade.

Yeah, right.  The market for $20 million injured wide receivers that may have a long road back from a difficult ankle surgery ...